In the process of manufacturing semiconductor devices, one technique for effecting solder attachment of components to printed circuit board substrates is wave soldering. In wave soldering, an array of elements comprising a plurality of printed circuit boards not yet separated into individual parts is conveyed past a reservoir of solder. The array of elements is passed sufficiently close to the solder so that the solder may contact the portions of the elements which are to be solder-connected.
It is known to process a plurality of printed circuit boards simultaneously, passing them through a wave solder apparatus while maintaining them in a pallet or other holding device. Problems have arisen and been addressed in prior art disclosures, for example, regarding the consistency of solder thickness when it is applied by such processes using such apparata. The relationship between relative velocity of the solder in the wave solder reservoir with respect to the elements to be soldered affects the thickness of the solder connection which results from such processing.
It would be useful to have a pallet or other holding apparatus for processing a plurality of electronic parts through various processing steps including wave solder treatment of the parts. It would also be useful to have such a pallet or other holding device which holds the parts sufficiently accurately to facilitate automatic component insertion in printed circuit board substrates, and to facilitate automatic testing, including testing on such devices as a "bed-of-nails" testing apparatus.